Conscious Consumerism First Thoughts
After reading the articles, my opinion has shifted from believing that conscious consumerism can genuinely help stop climate change to acknowledging that tiny steps made by single individuals will not impact the world as much as big corporations. Simply buying green will not stop other companies from making their unethical products. While it is sad to admit it, our individual actions will never impact our world because capitalism will always be the leading force that moves our world. For example, let’s say a person decides to stop buying from an unethical clothing brand and chooses to instead invest in sustainable and “green” clothes that will last a long time. Although this person is being a conscious consumer, their single action does not halt the millions and millions of unethical and fast fashion brands to quit their production. Popular demand will continue to drive these companies to produce as much as possible to satisfy their public. Additionally, as mentioned by one of the articles, many people have turned to boycotting to show their shopping decisions and their outrage and disagreements with the brand’s choices. However, once again, boycotting en masse is not enough to completely destroy unethical brands, because there will always be a group of people that will continue to consume from these labels.
Furthermore, the CQ researcher brought up a question that really made me think. Is buying green better for the environment than buying less? While the author agreed that buying green is a better step towards changing the environment, I argue that simply consuming less is a better option. Overconsumption has become such a normal concept in our society that we do not even realize how so many of the things we own we don’t really need them. Why am I buying this shirt that will no longer serve me any purpose in five years? Why am I spending money on buying these new clothing items when I know this fashion trend will be over next month? Even if I decide to buy the same items but from a “green company,” I am still overconsuming. And needless to say, buying green is totally elitist. Have we not noticed how saving the environment costs more than what some people can afford? If a poor person needs to buy a basic white shirt, but the one from a sustainable company is ten times more expensive than the one that they can get from a fast-fashion company, then I believe that there is absolutely no doubt that they would choose the latter.
No matter how much I agree that conscious consumerism is better than just mindlessly consuming, our individual actions will never make a huge impact on our environment, as capitalism continues to motivate companies to produce as much as they can to generate more revenue. Plus, there’s no way that we can force everyone to consciously consume, because buying “green” will always be more expensive, and to be fair, even “green” companies are trying to maximize their revenue as much as possible.
